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Under everyone's complex gazes, Emilia calmly strangled the poor elf ranger to death, then flipped back over to grab her sword before her body could fully dissipate.
Her decision turned out to be quite wise, as not even a second later, two blades of light almost cornered her from a point not far from her back, and she barely managed to avoid one while blocking the other.
Her opponent wasn't surprised by her movements, however, and even seemed to appreciate her a little. "As expected of an elf, you're fast… but weak."
[Grade 5 Challenger, Level 23, Beast Warrior]
Looking at the wolf and human hybrid swinging its two scimitars around arrogantly as it advanced towards her, Emilia just smiled.
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Crystal and the others had already gotten used to the crimson-haired girl's somewhat risky way of fighting after the first few rounds, and no longer got so scared or excited whenever things started to look a little dire.
Of course, being able to more calmly observe her battle, Danielle and the others soon spotted a problem.
"Now that I think about it, Emilia is our team's only proper frontliner, isn't she?"
Even if Nico could keep her healed, and Robin could assist her to an extent, the fact that they had three people who could only shoot from afar really didn't make it seem very balanced.
Crystal coughed and interrupted Danielle's somewhat pessimistic thoughts. "Actually, if we think about the opponents we've encountered so far… isn't this already a good setup?"
The smaller monsters were not an issue, and the most annoying point of the larger ones was their big pool of HP. With three of them being dedicated damage dealers, their farming efficiency would definitely be improved.
Moreover, despite Emilia's profession being a 'warrior', one could never underestimate the damage she dealt over time thanks to the combination of her sword, the 'Poison Fang', and her high agility.
Of course, having an additional 'tanker' would definitely not hurt their team in terms of combat power or adaptability, but that was only if they weren't taking farming efficiency into account.
The higher the number of teammates, the lower the experience each of them will get from every kill, and the slower their overall growth would be.
In Crystal's opinion, now that they'd managed to pull ahead of the 'crowd', bringing in someone 'new' would only slow them down.
Danielle frowned, a little confused, but she soon shook the distracting thoughts off to concentrate on Emilia's fight.
By now, the crimson-haired elf had already downed eight opponents, and was struggling against her ninth, a level twenty-nine demonic mage.
The reason she was having so much trouble stemmed mainly from the fact that her enemy could fly, and even when Emilia managed to perfectly get past his spells, it was hard to find a platform to jump high enough to catch the leather-winged mage.
Fortunately, the level of the demonic mage wasn't too high, and once he started running out of mana, he was too tired to be able to continuously maintain flight, and since the arena's barrier didn't allow him to leave, he could only wait to be slaughtered obediently.
Well, he cursed and cried, but it didn't stop Emilia's blade from separating his head from his body.
Emilia couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "What an annoying bug…"
Her skin was already covered with dust and soot, as well as multiple shallow cuts all over her thighs, legs, and arms, making her look quite pitiful. And her teammates had already started calling for her to quit.
In fact, if she hadn't known about the requirement for that title, Emilia really would have decided to withdraw at the moment. After all, she was quite tired, and it didn't seem worth it to risk 'dying' and losing much of her hard-earned experience for the sake of a few more points in this challenge.
As it was, though, Emilia could only smile helplessly. "Just one more round, please!"
Danielle and the others tried to persuade her otherwise, but soon realized that their voices were falling on deaf ears. And when a heavy sense of oppression erupted from the center of the arena, they couldn't help but shut up and take an involuntary step back in fear.
[Grade 10 Challenger, Level 30, Draconic Knight]
Unlike every other 'enemy' who arrived before it, this one took its time to fully materialize, but Emilia didn't dare to close in and take advantage of this 'vulnerability' at all.
Under the cover of the light, if it really managed to make a fatal sneak attack on her, wouldn't all her previous efforts be in vain?
When the light finally vanished, what stood in front of Emilia was a fully armored lizard man… or woman, she really couldn't tell. Either way, both its golden scales and green eyes were exotic and beautiful, and radiated an aura of both danger and charm that made Emilia a little wary.
The draconic knight rested its clawed hand on the handle of its longsword, then bowed as if completing some ceremony. "Greetings, elven child. My name is Kaira, although I suppose this existence is just an illusion. But since the rules of this place demand that we fight, please forgive me for the disrespect."
Emilia wasn't quite sure how to respond to the draconic knight's 'taunt', so she just returned its 'greeting' with her name and gripped the handle of her sword tightly in preparation for the upcoming clash.
She could tell that the strength of this opponent far exceeded that of the previous ones, though she wasn't sure if it was because of their bloodline, level, or something else.
It wasn't completely unexpected, considering that the level of enemies in the warrior's challenge rose at a much faster pace during one's first challenge to quickly get them to their 'deserved' ranking.
But still, she didn't think that her tenth opponent would already be so strong.
"Prepare yourself, youngling! Maybe you will learn a thing or two today." Kaira smiled 'gently' and drew out the longsword before pointing it at Emilia, though the rows of sharp fangs really didn't help much in carrying forward the draconic knight's original intentions.
Emilia's pupils constricted as she saw the golden figure dash towards her in a blur, its speed far exceeding her expectations. But thanks to her being prepared in advance, she was still able to parry the sharp longsword, though the force behind it almost numbed her arms completely.
Luckily, she hadn't decided to block it, or it would have been over. But the crimson-haired elf didn't have much time to dwell on such thoughts, because the draconic knight easily swerved the longsword around again, as if her parry didn't break its flow at all, and Emilia was forced to deal with it again and again.
Each consecutive blow felt harder than the one before, and Emilia almost felt like she was back in her old world, facing her sword instructor at the age of eight.
The weakness in her arms made it impossible to really deal with her opponent as she pleased, and the dozen different ways she could formulate to deal with her opponent all instantly seemed so useless in front of that reality.
Even though Emilia knew that it was because of this world not allowing her real strength to shine through into the game, she couldn't help but feel a little frustrated.
And the draconic knight's 'encouragement' didn't help at all. "For such a young elf, you're actually much faster and stronger than I expected… How about forming a union with this young dragonling in the future, lady elf? If I defeat you today, and we manage to really meet in the future, just treat it as fate. Destiny, if you will. I shall take care of you, and you shall belong to me."
Not to mention Crystal and the others, even the audience watching their livestream was stunned by the dialogue of this 'NPC'. Did Arcadia have such a 'unique' system, too?
Fortunately, Emilia was able to control herself in time, and turned her frustration into determination instead of rage. "You seem like someone who's been taught well, but I've never seen someone so shameless as to court someone they called a child less than a minute ago. If I don't teach you a lesson today, I'll feel really sorry for your teacher!"
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